10 Simple Gardening Tips and Tricks

Whether you’re an old pro or learning what colour your thumb is, we have 10 tips and tricks to help you enjoy gardening. There’s nothing more rewarding than time spent gardening and we’re here to help you spend it wisely and to save a bit of money as well!

Scraping your finger nails across a bar of soap will make your end-of-the day clean up quick and easy! Photo courtesy gardentherapy.ca/handmadesoap/

1. Use soap to prevent dirt under your finger nails. – It’s one of those tricks your grandma might have passed down to you. Simply scrape your finger nails across a bar of soap, plugging the finger nails with soap. When you’re done getting dirty for the day, you’ll find cleaning your hands a breeze with none of that dirt to dig out from under your finger nails.

2. Garden twine dispenser – An easy way to make a garden twine dispenser is by placing the twine underneath a clay pot allowing twine to pull out through the drain hole

Marking a shovel or rake handle with common garden measurements will save time when you’re doing any new plantings

3. Measure once– take a shovel or rake, lay it down on the ground, then with a tape measure mark out some common gardening measurements with a permanent marker. Use common plant spacing measurements like 6 inches, 1 foot, and so on.

4. Hose guide – It’s easy to make a garden hose guide with 2 clay pots. Place a metal stake in the ground, slide one pot upside down over the stake through the drain hole. Slide the second clay pot unto the stake right side up. The top of your clay pot hose guide can still be used to plant in. Never let a good space go to waste.

5. Saving water– If you cover the outside of clay pots with a layer of latex paint or clear varnish, they’ll not only last longer than plastic ones, they also hold moisture for your plants. As an added bonus, they keep the roots cool and allow plants to breath/

6. Re-using water– Water that would normally be discarded after cooking or steaming vegetables is easily recycled by water plants.

7. Plant protector– Empty clay pots turned upside down and placed over small plants will protect them during a frost.

Clay pots can be used as hose guides, for protecting plants during a frost, and much more!

8. Name that plant– Identifying mature plants comes easily, but when plants are small the can appear similar. One way to mark your plants is by placing a stone in front of them. Use a stone with at least one flat side you can write on with a permanent marker. This rock name tag will be a natural fit to your garden.

9. Coffee in the morning– If you have acid loving plants like blueberry’s, raspberry’s and such, apply coffee or tea grounds around the base of the plant 3 or 4 times per year.

10. Chamomile tea– If seedlings show signs of damping-off fungus, basically any signs of disease near the soil or a thinning stem, spray with chamomile tea mist twice per day.

I have a soap tip. It’s pretty basic but seems to impress my friends – a block of soap in an onion bag hung from the back tap. You just lather up your hands through the plastic mesh to get the bulk of the dirt off your hands before going indoors. It has its weaknesses though. Once my dog ate the soap (she only did this once though), and the mesh tends to break down over time under UV light.

1 tip that I have which often surprises friends and is also good for recycling is that when your roses have new growth and are being attacked by Aphids using the soapy water from washing your dishes is a great way to get rid of the Aphids by pouring it over the rose bush when the water has cooled and negates the need for pesticides.

I garden mostly in containers, because I am handicapped and on crutches. Before I fill a pot with potting mix, I line the sides with several layers of newspapers. This insulates the pot, as well as retains water.

Thanks….we had snow this morning but am hopeful of days of higher temps to clean up the debreis from a heavy rain and a very heavy wind storm that ruined 6 trees in our yard…they must be dug up and removed because of the severe damage. Hopefully we can save the remaining 10….

I use vinegar and baking soda to test my soil pH whenever I ran out of kits .All you need to do is collect some very little soil ,add half a cup of vinegar.If the soil fizzes ,it means its alkaline (ph7-8) if it doesn’t no need to worry .Take some distilled water ,get a handful of soil pour distilled water and then add half cup of baking soda ,if it fizzes ,it means its acidic soil (ph5-6).
if fizzing doesnt happen after both processes ,that means the soil is neutral.
I just enjoy doing it honestly ,hence I rarely get pH kits.

Connect With Us:

Posts By Season:

Your Easy Garden:

We blog about topics and plants that make gardening easier. Whether you are an experienced gardener or just starting out, we hope you will find our blog to be informative and helpful. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Facebook!